Cornell Professor Ronald G. Ehrenberg will receive an honorary doctor of science degree from the State University of New York's Binghamton University. Ehrenberg, a staunch advocate of public higher education, will receive the degree and speak at BU's Graduate School Commencement in May.

The Irving M. Ives Professor of Industrial and Labor Relations and Economics at Cornell and a Stephen H. Weiss presidential fellow, Ehrenberg also directs the Cornell Higher Education Research Institute (CHERI) and is a member of the Cornell Board of Trustees. From 1995 to 1998 he served as Cornell's vice president for academic programs, planning and budgeting.

Ehrenberg said the honor means a great deal to him because he received his B.A. in mathematics from Binghamton's Harpur College in 1966 and his two sisters also graduated from SUNY. He has worked to help Binghamton University prosper and been an advocate for improved funding for public higher education nationwide. For the last two decades his research has focused on higher education, and he has served as a consultant at various colleges and universities on issues relating to tuition and financial aid policies, faculty compensation policies, faculty retirement policies and other budgetary, planning and academic issues.

Ehrenberg, who joined the Cornell faculty in 1975, established CHERI in 1998 as a vehicle for interdisciplinary research on higher education. Faculty and administrators affiliated with CHERI come from five Cornell colleges and academic institutions from around the world.

Ehrenberg also has authored or co-authored more than 120 papers and authored or edited 20 books.